Saturday, April 29, 2017

She wasn’t at all surprised when her dreams were full of
images, broken mirrors, the pieces flying through the air, or crystal dust
swirling about and taking on shapes she could never clearly identify before
they swirled back into dust clouds and dust devils. She woke up several times,
feeling as if she had been yanked out of the dream just a few heartbeats before
an image succeeded in solidifying in her mind. Some time shortly before dawn, she
fell into a deeper, more solid, yet no more restful sleep and dreamed of a
mirror formed of the crystal dust. It swirled in a flat whirlpool, yet even as
it retained its shimmering, granular texture, somehow she could see herself in
it. Behind her, other images spun and bounced from one side of the invisible
frame to the other.

The mirror shattered and she cut her hand on a massive shard
of it that exploded into dust and reformed into the mirror. Several drops of
blood from her cut hand fell into the center of the spinning dust surface, and
it turned smooth and glistening as pure glass. Ess gasped as her parents
appeared in the new, smooth, liquid surface. They smiled and spoke to her, but
she couldn’t hear their voices.

She was waking. She knew she was waking, and knew that
fighting to stay asleep, stay dreaming, would only wake her more. She
absolutely hated that sensation.

Focus on the
dream, think about it, not sleep, she
scolded herself.

She saw her parents in the dream. They were looking at her, but
outside the mirror. The dreamer. Her parents could see her.

Did the mirror allow her to speak to the dead?

Somehow that felt wrong. She had no time to think about the
theological implications, but Ess was fairly positive that God didn’t permit
communication between Heaven and Earth. She knew her parents were in Heaven.
The fact that she didn’t see her grandparents in the mirror was some comfort.

Not that she could use that as proof that Matilda and Ernest
weren’t dead. Yet.

Wednesday, April 26, 2017

Yesterday, I turned in MUSIC IN THE NIGHT, the final book in the Guardians of the Time Stream series, published by Desert Breeze Publishing.

MUSIC is due out in October.

What happens in it? Well, if you read SANCTUARY (and if you didn't, go do that right now) we left Ess and her friends gearing up to search for the daughter of Anna, a Revisionist woman who joined the Originators and was friends with Ess's mother, Vivian. Both women owned a rose carved from the crystal used by the Originators, and several times when they were children, Ess and Carmen, Anna's daughter, met in their dreams. Ess has to find Carmen before the Revisionists do, and enslave her and the incredible talent she inherited from her mother.

Also, there's a faint touch of "Phantom of the Opera" in the story, with singing and an underground community.

Saturday, April 22, 2017

"Well it's like--"
Kurt scowled and I could almost hear humming, he was thinking so hard. "There
was this one TV show where this guy had to learn how to do it and the guy who
was teaching him said to think about his power like an extra hand."

"What does that mean?"

"Just think really hard
about what you want the superguy power to do, and... I don't know, just think
really hard."

Simple enough, right?

Wrong?

I'm still not sure to this day
how I made the mental connection, and how I switched over from kinda-sorta
flying to grabbing all the trash the bullies had been throwing at us, and with
the power of my mind flinging it back at them. With interest. All that really
mattered right then was that I did it.

While the bullies ran away
screaming and whining and then tried to claim that Kurt and a whole bunch of
the big boys ganged up on them, I curled up with my first superpower-induced
sick headache, and a nosebleed. That taught me and Kurt a huge lesson that day.

Actually, a number of lessons. We
were too young and inexperienced to put it all into words or separate the
factors and different variables. The important part was that we shouldn't try
too much or work too hard, when it came to using our superhero powers.
Fortunately, Kurt had already figured out another important rule: fuel! He ran
to the concession stand and bought two creamsicles and three packages of
cookies. He had already learned that using his gizmo talent made him
achy-hungry, and if he didn't eat something right away, it turned into a killer
headache like I had.

I inhaled the treats, leaving
just the one creamsicle for Kurt. By the time Mrs. S blew her whistle to round
us all up to climb back on the bus to go back to NCH, I was feeling almost
normal. Almost, because once my headache went away and the nosebleed stopped, I
felt like I was floating about four inches off the ground. It was a heady
feeling of power, to know I had beaten the bullies at just five years of age.

Monday, April 17, 2017

Even more cool, and stepping slightly outside of my usual reading zone ....
It's a GRAPHIC NOVEL.
That's grown-up geek speak for comic book, but a huge comic book. As in, the whole story is there in one volume, instead of having to wait a month in between each measly chapter.

The story takes place after Book 4, WINTER, so if you haven't read the book yet (like me, because I'm trying to read down my electronic "stack" of to-be-reads before I can justify buying a new ebook -- and yeah, I'm cheap and waiting for the price to drop a few more bucks ... and I got this book using my Amazon reward points, so technically I didn't spend any money ...), this one might be kind of a spoiler. But you knew our heroines, Cinder, Scarlet, Cress and Winter and their assorted heroes were going to triumph, didn't you?

Anyway, Iko is now in the curvaceous and pretty tough, strong body of an escort android and hunting the wolf-hybrid Lunar soldiers who are skulking about on Earth and making everybody scared and sort of miserable. Life ain't easy for an independent-minded android, even though she has a lot of friends who consider her a person. There are the android manufacturers who keep offering to "fix" her personality chip, and the wolf-hybrid soldiers and the people who won't admit she's a person and oh, yeah, the wolf-hybrid soldiers. They kind of get in the way of figuring out if she's just malfunctioning, or she might have genuine feelings after all.

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Ess
took the rod and pressed it between her hands, to keep it from picking up the
deliciously fearful shivers vibrating in her breastbone. Ford stood and opened
the door, then waited until Athena and Dr. Sylvia stepped outside.

“How
long?” She wasn’t quite sure herself what she was asking.

“As
long as it takes,” Dr. Sylvia said. “As long as you feel comfortable working on
it. I highly recommend regular breaks for fresh air and food, exercise and
rest. Especially rest.”

“Take
as long as you want,” Ford said. “But try to finish before we reach
Cleveland." He chuckled when Athena sighed loudly. “Once those lawyers get
hold of you, I doubt you’ll have any room in your head for experiments.”

“He’s
right, in a way.” Athena made a shooing gesture with her fingertips. Ford grinned,
bowed, then sauntered away. “Take your time. Expecting miracles in a matter of
days will simply put up a barrier. This secret has waited for centuries. Your
family has been working on it for generations. It would be ridiculous to expect
you to unlock it in a few days. And it would be equally ridiculous not to try,
while we have time and opportunity.”

With
a smile, she stepped out and closed the door.

Ess
inhaled, raising her fingertips again to press, to relieve the sensation of
increased pressure in the bones around her ears. When that dissipated, she put
the crystal rod down on the table, wrapped it in a fold of the acoustic cloth,
and reached to open the box of dust.

The
shimmer of sound wasn’t as strong this time, compared to the first time she
encountered the dust in the canopic jar. Likely an effect resulting from both
the acoustic cloth and the reduced amount of dust. Ess played with the amounts,
spreading a little on the table, then tapping the rod, listening to the sound
that resulted, gauging the reaction in her sinus bones, then adding more dust. She
repeated the process until all the dust lay on the table. Then she experimented
with arranging the dust, drawing furrows, piling it as high as she could get
it, then spreading it out as thin as she could.

She discovered
that while the crystal rod continued to vibrate, it made the dust stick
together, so she could guide it into shapes. She had fun with that for a while.

When her thoughts wandered, the next thing she knew
she had created a three-dimensional copy of the lotus, without quite knowing
how she had done it.

Wednesday, April 12, 2017

I've re-released an old book, previously published with By Grace Publishing.

This book started life as a proposed Easter pageant script for my church, which used to do a big, blow-out, cast-of-thousands production for 13 years, with sold-out crowds and 5 or 6 performances every year.

ELISHEVA was originally called THE PRICE, and was an alternative, focusing on the impact Jesus had on the lives around Him.

Now titled ELISHEVA, Part 1, The Price, this book will be followed up next year (at least, that's the plan!) with Part 2: The Journey. After all, Elisheva's life goes on after she leaves Jerusalem and heads out into the world that is decidedly unfriendly towards the followers of the Messiah.

So, my Easter gift to you -- ELISHEVA as a free download for 3 days only -- Wednesday through Friday, April 12 through 14.

Enjoy.

And have a blessed Easter!

Elisheva's life as
the sheltered daughter of a rich, highly respected rabbi, changed in a matter
of months. First, her father was censured by the Sanhedrin and fell from grace.
The humiliation and his anger destroyed his health, and when he died, Elisheva
was left at the mercy of her reckless, rebellious brother, Simeon. He threw in
his lot with the Zealots, and when a raid failed, Simeon was captured and
crucified for his crimes.

Elisheva learned
that when a man committed the crime of rebellion against Rome, the Romans
punished his entire family. Their home and farm and vineyards and servants were
confiscated. Elisheva was sent to be sold as a slave. None of her father's
former friends and students spoke up for her, or offered to redeem her.

Facing a short,
unhappy future as a harlot, Elisheva went to the auction block. Then the
unthinkable happened. Benjamin, one of her father's former students, sold
everything he possessed to buy her. He had vowed to marry her, but had been
turned away because he was poor.

Elisheva vowed she
would make him happy, so he never regretted the risks he had taken, the mockery
he endured for her sake. She thought they would be happy, and they were, until
a rabbi from Nazareth came to Jerusalem and turned the world upside down. With
success and security and wealth within their grasp, the choices Benjamin and
Elisheva made next would affect the rest of their lives, and might tear them
apart.

Monday, April 10, 2017

Sometimes it's really, really hard to make myself wait until the paper edition comes out. (With all the books waiting to be read in my to-be-read bookshelf, plus e-readers) Which is why I love being able to borrow electronic editions from the library -- or in the case of this book, find them for sale used.

Who'd'a thunk I'd find a 2016 book in a stall at an antique mall near Hocking Hills, Ohio?

Okay, these books are over-the-top fun, and can get silly, and it's just not a genuine Stephanie Plum unless she gets messy and embarrassed and Grandma Mazur makes Stephanie's mother reach for the bottle in the cupboard and at least one of Stephanie's cars gets totaled. But Ranger makes an interesting comment that kind of supports why Stephanie kinda-sorta succeeds despite her flailing around and having Lula for a sidekick (love Lula, but she lost her grip on reality centuries ago) -- Stephanie pays attention to details. She notices things. She might not put them together in a usable way, but she ends up being very useful for others. Which is why Ranger keeps her around. Among other reasons, of course.

One mishap after another, resulting from chasing totally stupid, sloppy, single-digit-I.Q. crooks who don't understand why they have to show up for court after committing a crime, gets Stephanie and her friends involved in solving a murder. Yeah, things get kind of serious. In fact, the series is getting more serious as time goes on. Stephanie gets hurt, she's in danger, real crooks with real guns and some competence -- or at least efficient henchmen -- threaten her. From the dead body found turned into an over-sized ice cream treat at the beginning, Stephanie comes close to being turned into another ice cream bar at the end. That's enough to make you scared of the Good Humor man ...

Love the series. I don't know how Janet Evanovich does it, book after book.

Saturday, April 8, 2017

Kurt just looked at me. Then he
grinned. I liked that grin. It was nasty and it was like laughter was going to
explode out of him and he knew something wonderful.

"If you can lift yourself
up in the air, maybe you can lift other stuff?" he finally said.

"But I don't know how."

"Come on, don't be a girl!"

"But I am a girl."

He stared at me for a few seconds,
then he grinned, but it was a different kind of grin.

"Can any of the superheroes
in your comic books do it?"

"Yeah." He yelped as a
pinecone got him right in the eye, and slid back farther under the table,
rubbing at his eye. "Hold on, I gotta think."

The problem with the comic books
Kurt had read was that they showed but didn't explain. Later, he gave me all
the comic books where a superhero had telekinetic power, not that either of us
knew that particular word at the time. Usually the only instructions we got
consisted of a kind of greenish ray shooting out of someone's head, and
blasting a car or tearing a wall apart.

"I don't know," he
finally said. "It's kind of like... You know how on TV they show people
with superpowers."

"No. We don't get to stay
up that late."

"Well it's like--"
Kurt scowled and I could almost hear humming, he was thinking so hard. "There
was this one TV show where this guy had to learn how to do it and the guy who
was teaching him said to think about his power like an extra hand."

Wednesday, April 5, 2017

SANCTUARY, Book 2 in the Guardians of the Time Stream series, from Desert Breeze Publishing.Ess Fremont and the Blue Lotus Society know the Originators have been infiltrated by Revisionists. The treachery has reached even to their headquarters, Sanctuary, an underground complex near San Francisco.Problem: The Society can't contact Sanctuary, or risk putting power into the

enemy's hands. Yet Ess must go there to claim her heritage and learn how and why her grandparents vanished seven years ago.

Solution: Ask her family lawyers to "turn her in," and on the train ride cross-country, begin her education.

The journey launches revelations that threaten everything Ess knows as truth. As she uncovers schemes within lies within treachery, the fulfillment of her family's destiny rests heavy on her shoulders.

Who can she trust when her own grandparents blocked her memories, and the means of saving -- or destroying -- them all are hidden in the vaults of her mind?

Superheroes. They live among us, some hidden in plain sight, others as well-known celebrities. All carry a burden and a purpose: to destroy the evils of this world and keep the common man safe from harm.

But evil is a strong thread that refuses to be cut. How much sacrifice will be demanded to destroy that which seeks to destroy us, and are there enough heroes to do the job?

Experience a collection of short stories brimming with the struggles of heroism and the dark side of villainy, where

The Bald Man by Timothy G. HugueninThe Last Call by Kristin L. NormansinEater by D.A. WilliamsHierro by Jen FinelliLiving Proof by Michelle LevigneAirfoil: Hotspots by Steve RzasaSomeone Is Aiming For You by JD CowanWithout Blemish: A Philosophy of Preaching by Nathan James NormanThe Trojan Initiative by Clayton WebbFly Like A Bird by Rosemary E. JohnsonChronostream’s Father by Adam David Collings

Another Neighborlee, Ohio adventure, told through the eyes of Lanie Zephyr, someone you've met before in other stories. From the day she's found abandoned by the side of the road as a toddler, Lanie tells how she learned to be a semi-pseudo-superhero and one of the guardians of the wonderful, magical weirdness that is Neighborlee.

Monday, April 3, 2017

SANCTUARYBook Two of the Steampunk seriesGuardians of the Time StreamEss Fremont and the Blue Lotus Society know the Originators have been infiltrated by Revisionists. The treachery has reached even to their headquarters, Sanctuary, an underground complex near San Francisco.

Problem: The Society can't contact Sanctuary, or risk putting power into the enemy's hands. Yet Ess must go there to claim her heritage and learn how and why her grandparents vanished seven years ago.

Solution: Ask her family lawyers to "turn her in," and on the train ride cross-country, begin her education.

The journey launches revelations that threaten everything Ess knows as truth. As she uncovers schemes within lies within treachery, the fulfillment of her family's destiny rests heavy on her shoulders.

Who can she trust when her own grandparents blocked her memories, and the means of saving -- or destroying -- them all are hidden in the vaults of her mind?

Saturday, April 1, 2017

“I
thought the race to find the parts of the Machine was only a recent
development.”

“Oh,
yes, the race. However, the determination to be ready for when the pieces came
out of hiding has been going on since the Machine was disassembled. Our
ancestors learned then it was impossible to destroy a single fragment of
crystal.” He winked at her. “Which is why that intriguing box of dust you
delivered to us has been driving Vulcan and her team to distraction.”

“Theo
thought it might be lubrication or something like that,” she said, as she led
the way down the corkscrew stairs, two levels, to the main deck.

“Lubrication
for what? The emerging theory is that there are really no moving parts.”

“How
can a machine not have moving parts? How can it do anything if it doesn’t move?
What kind of energy does it need, to do what it’s supposed to do? I just
assumed it used the same kind of energy that made the Zeus guns work, or the
lights, or all the incredible devices that make the light bulb and steam engine
seem rather clunky and filthy by comparison.”

“That’s
just it. Energy. The crystal doesn’t require energy, so much as it generates energy, and that energy opens
the way, moves the material of space and time, to allow travel through time.
The more the Machine comes together, the bigger the clumps of it, the more
frustrating the whole conglomeration becomes. Because it defies what we know
and understand of science and engineering.”

“Vulcan
must be thoroughly delighted with the puzzle,” Ess murmured, pausing at the
doorway into the main deck area.

“We’re
taking bets on how long it takes for her to pull out all her hair, and how she
will do it, a strand at a time or in great clumps.” He reached around her for
the latch. “Care to place a wager?”

Ess stuck her tongue out at him. Ford just chuckled
and thumped her on the shoulder as she pushed the door open.

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I'm a freelance editor handling fiction and non-fiction books and short stories as well as business articles. I am multi-published in e and small press. My dreams include winning the World Series in Cleveland, selling to Hollywood, and living off my book royalties.